SO UFERLOS IM ABENDWIND

Nowadays, if you are looking for progressive rock from that European country, you will probably find a project in which a very talented musician called Markus Stauss is involved.

This is the case of this jazz rock oriented trio named Überfall, which was formed in the mid eighties, they released four studio albums and then disbanded in the early nineties, but anyway, in 1994 the band released this compilation album entitled "So uferlos im Abendwind", (don't ask me what it means), and it comprises some representative songs taken from their studio albums, so here you will find an excellent introduction to this interesting band. This album feature 15 and a total time of 73 minutes, so yeah you will have more than an hour of enjoyment of this jazz (but avant-garde) band. The members of this trio were the above mentioned Markus Stauss, playing sax, additional keyboards and other extra instruments, he also provides the vocals to this band, Pit Kayser who was in charge of keyboards and also vocals, and Andy Muckenhirn who played drums. It is important to mention that there are guest musicians in some songs.

Despite being the same band, there are tracks that are completely different, though they do not miss the band's essence, that jazz sound prevails in each and every of their songs but in some of them there is a gently, exquisite and more melodic sound, though in others there is a crazy, challenging and more complex style. For example track no. 4 "Happiness" reflexes what its name suggests, so it is a funny and really enjoyable track, the sax work is excellent; but in the other hand you can appreciate a track like no. 5 "Kulturbetried" with a nervous mood some kind of dark atmosphere.

The music in general is excellent, though I have to admit that there are some tracks I less enjoyed or didn't like, and I must say that the vocals are not my cup of tea, I also must admit that I cannot understand the lyrics, but anyway I prefer the instrumental offerings.

My favorites are "Happiness"; "Uferios"; "Eiszeit" which is a very interesting song where you can appreciate an outstanding bass sound, excellent drums and extraordinary keyboards. All in all is a great album, more pros than cons, and an excellent way to get into the band, now I believe their studio albums are only available as LP, so this compilation one can be the best choice.

As I usually do in this kind of compilation albums ("best of"), I will give it three stars; recommendable to any prog rock fan, worth checking out. Special thanks to Rok and Markus.

Enjoy it!